Russellville High School teacher Paul Gray has a goal to get students to truly think about the “why” — admittedly a difficult question — behind the events of Sept. 11, 2001, and attempt to understand the broader context. (THE COURIER / Joshua Mashon)

Russellville High School teachers face a new challenge as they strive to help students who have little to no memory of Sept. 11, 2001, understand the event.

Most of the students Paul Gray, who teaches geography and world religions, and Amber Hodges, who teaches U.S. History, see in their classes have vague memories of the historic day etched into the minds of many Americans.

These students were largely in preschool at the time, and Hodges said many of their memories are limited to seeing that their parents were upset, but not really knowing why.

It’s a unique challenge, Hodges noted, because textbooks haven’t caught up with the evolving history yet. In fact, she said historians generally don’t teach events as history that are so recent.

“Historians would tell you, if something is 20 years old or less, you can’t teach it as history, because you haven’t developed a context, but I think it would be malpractice, really, not to teach Sept. 11 to these kids — but knowing that historical context is still being created,” Hodges said.

So the challenge then becomes this: How do you teach the significance and impact of Sept. 11 to a group of students who have no understanding of a pre-Sept. 11, 2001, world?

Hodges said the first challenge is to help students understand what they know about the events of Sept. 11 in a broader context. She said that, growing up, children are told a narrative about the events on a level that they can comprehend. As they enter into high school, however, the time has come to understand the complex issues behind the terrorist attacks in a more mature way.

“Now that they’re in high school and about to go to college, they really need to have the analytical skills necessary to really think about this and realize it wasn’t a one-dimensional event,” she said.

Gray said as a teacher of geography and world religions, he tries to frame the discussion in a different way, noting Sept. 11 is the first memory many have of Islam and the Middle East.

“When I teach about Islam, or I teach about the Middle East, there’s nothing positive these kids have to hang their hats on, which becomes my job to help them understand this whole Sept. 11 and how it fits into context, both historically and in the present time,” he said. “... They have zero knowledge of the region other than the World Trade Center.”

Gray said his goal is to get students to truly think about the “why” — admittedly a difficult question — behind the events and attempt to understand the broader context.